Posted by Melanie on July 6, 2010 – 3:13 am
A few days ago, I finally watched Miyazaki’s latest animated film, Ponyo. I’d been stalking it in the university library forever (seems like it took eons to “process” the DVD).
According to the summary on IMDB:
The son of a sailor, 5-year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa. One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father’s magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo’s father sends the ocean’s mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo’s dreams of becoming human.
I really enjoyed this movie; the cuteness was almost unbearable. The animation style was incredible, as it was truly a layer of multiple techniques—flat color and line-work distinctive of anime moving on top of scenery that looks as though it has been rendered in colored pencil. Ponyo marks the return to all hand-drawn animation for Miyazaki, who said, “hand drawing on paper is the fundamental of animation.” I love that as the rest of the children’s film industry pushes towards CG and 3-D production, some people are preserving the traditional cartoon-esque style of my childhood. I also could appreciate that elements of the story reminded me of the “true” (e.g. not Disney-fied) Little Mermaid story.
The one critique I have is about plot structure. The movie is exciting, the pacing is great, but I felt the conclusion was not all that climatic. The characters seemed to be building a certain moment as crucial, pivotal, but I was surprised by how easily that conflict was resolved. Regardless, I enjoyed this film and would recommend it to any who need to experience a childlike wonder of the world. A warning: you will want to watch some nautical Discovery films after this.
Posted by Melanie on June 9, 2010 – 5:29 am
The Philadelphia Story is a film about Tracy, a Philadelphian socialite and ex-divorce on the cusp of her second marriage. She is a private woman, and as a pair of reporters from Spy magazine are sent out to dig up her wedding story, hi-jinks ensue. This movie was based off a play, which in turn was based off of the life of Helen Hope Montgomery Scott. I watched this film a little while ago, but I’ve been so busy that I didn’t get around to digitizing the type until tonight (which is in itself, I admit, a rush job).
Spoiler alert! I really enjoyed The Philadelphia Story; it was a nice calm after the march of the insane Kubrick films. However, I was pretty dissatisfied with the resolution—that is, when Tracy remarries C.K. Dexter. I think everyone is rooting for the reporter-slash-little known-author, Mike Connor, and the plot would leave you to believe that Tracy will call it quits on her wedding to George Kittredge (yes folks, that’s three men) for his sake. Imagine my surprise when it’s C.K. Dexter walking her down the aisle in the end of the film. I’m pretty sure I yelled at the screen, “didn’t he hit you in the very beginning?!”
That said, a great film was soured by its all-too-neat ending. I felt that it was the stuff of daydreams from children of divorced parents. After watching The Philadelphia Story, I read on Wikipedia that remarriage films were popular in the 1930s and 1940s. It makes sense that the public would desire happy endings in a decade wracked by war and economic depression.
All in all, a good film as long as you take it with a grain of salt and a pinch of empathy for a war-torn generation.
Posted by Melanie on May 23, 2010 – 7:08 am
Filed under Design, Films
I’ve been holding off on posting about this one because I wasn’t exactly sure what I thought about it. A Clockwork Orange features Alex, a Beethoven fan-boy teen gang leader who wreaks havoc on his dystopian English town. When a night of mischief goes too far and Alex accidentally (or maybe not) kills a woman with her phallic statue, Alex finds himself in prison. In the penitentiary, Alex hears about a procedure that would “cure” him of his evil deeds, a procedure which would allow him to leave a free man…
On the one hand, this film is horribly grotesque, and I am way too Middle America for the violent imagery. However, the film also gives an interesting insight into teen gang violence, and how society reacts to wayward citizens (which is, admittedly, protracted in the dystopian setting). The strange thing is that despite my hatred of Alex and his band of “droogs,” I can’t help but feel a strange sympathy for him at certain moments of the film. What I thought particularly interesting as well was the prison chaplain character. Religious figures in secular films are often depicted as evil, hypocritical, or deluded; in A Clockwork Orange, however, the chaplain holds to the belief that men should have and harness the power of free choice. I could appreciate that deviation from cinema’s cliche character sketches, and it was one of the saving points of this bizarre film.
An aside: I also meant to post tonight on The Godfather, but 10 minutes before the ending, the VHS I rented from the university library gave out. Not to fear: the movie is mainstream enough for a friend to own it, so I will eventually be able to follow up on that film. Sometime this weekend I will also be posting on The Philadelphia Story, so stay tuned.
Posted by Melanie on May 5, 2010 – 10:33 pm
Filed under Design, Films
2001: A Space Odyssey is the second Stanley Kubrick film I’ve ever seen, preceded only by
Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The film jumps from prehistoric apes to corporate space travel to a sentient computer bent on passive aggressive survival tactics. As an adolescent of the turn of the millennium, my attention span was far too short to pay attention to this film in its entirety, because each movement takes about five minutes to complete. However, there are some intriguing and mysterious points to
2001, such as the jump cut from an ape’s bone spinning in the air to a floating space ship of similar shape, inferring something deep and timeless about human nature despite evolution. What made the greatest impression on me was how quiet this movie was (hence, the above type treatment). Even in the face of danger or mystery or the backdrop of classical music, there is a definite quietness to this film that renders it a bit sinister and uncomfortable.
Posted by Melanie on April 19, 2010 – 9:24 pm
Filed under Design, Films
In terms of cinematic excellence, I was a bit of a sheltered child. While my friends were watching films of “substance,” which were probably a bit too mature for them, I was watching “family friendly” movies (think Airbud). Having never gotten around to seeing must-see or classic films, I decided to undertake viewing all of the 2007 AFI Top 100 Movies. I’ve been chipping away at the list slowly, but I’ve just now started to draw a wordmark—for lack of a better term—for each movie I view.
Recently I rented Tootsie from the university library, which happens to own the vast majority of the Top 100 list. It follows a very similar plot line to Mrs. Doubtfire, and the fact that I have prior knowledge of the latter should be an indicator of just how bad my film history is. I have to say I enjoyed this much more; there is a sincerity in Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of Michael Dorsey as Dorothy Michaels. At #62 on the list, this is one of the more humorous films and one that I’d probably watch again.